Empty and Cleaned-up Templates. [UPDATED]

[loripanori]

I tried using the empty Belladonna Cove, and was having the same problem with the previously lived-in apartment buildings still thinking there were still families living in them...  So I tried emptying BDC out myself, but I'm not sure if I did it right.  Basically I let the game generate a BDC with all the characters, went in and moved everyone out of the apartment buildings (to the sims bin), then shut down, deleted all the characters in the E001 folder in My documents, then restarted the game, loaded up Belladonna Cove again, saw that everything was in fact empty (including the apartment buildings where people had been living) , then shut down again.  Deleted all characters in AL Userdata -E001 -Characters, replaced the E001 package file with the E001 from my documents, deleted the Neighborhoods folder in my documents, then booted the game back up again, and checked the newly made Belladonna Cove.  And it seems ok so far, everything is in fact empty...  But I have no idea if that's how I was supposed to do it, of if my method will eventually bork everything.  I tried to find a tutorial, but the only one I came across described how to clean and empty things, using the already cleaned up / empty templates.  Oh crap, nevermind, having just looked at the file in SimPE I'm thinking I have to edit the file as well...  Do I just delete stuff like sim description, sim DNA, etc.?  Are there instructions somewhere?  Something tells me I'm in over my head here, ha.  Alternatively, if someone who knows what they're doing wants to re-empty it after moving the families out of the apartments first, I think that'll fix the glitch. 

And speaking of which, is there a cleaned up Belladonna Cove kicking around?  With the Maxis playables, but all the extra characters deleted?   

[Gastfyr]

Well, my husband and I used these empty templates to make a nice new clean hood.     It seemed to work perfectly, and the characters folder is showing empty.

However, I noticed the two occupied houses that came with Pets are still in the lots and houses bin.  Is this normal?  Is it safe to just delete them or just leave them there or whatever?

[Cynarra]

 Linkerror on download for U003

[Giggy]

Well, my husband and I used these empty templates to make a nice new clean hood.     It seemed to work perfectly, and the characters folder is showing empty.

However, I noticed the two occupied houses that came with Pets are still in the lots and houses bin.  Is this normal?  Is it safe to just delete them or just leave them there or whatever?

you can delete the lots, they're not affected by the P001 neighborhood file.

I've also noticed the Belladonna Cove problem.
I'll add to the post about it and suggest some ways to bypast it

[BirmanKat]

OH Kay,  once again.


Ok...   I grabbed the two empty hoods from giggy, and have a question about them.

Are these hoods cleaned, and empty?  Or are there sims in them?  I need to know this before I add them to the collection I am hosting on K and B Designs.  (BTW  the name and URL will be changing soon.  Preview of name:  The Kats Meow.  Have to change the name, because some meatheads keep emailing me asking where the kitchen and bath stuff is.  D**b you EAxis for using that name.)

Birman Kat

PS  I need this info before I add these files.  Also, is there a method to clear the Apartments?  If so, could somebody turn it into a text file and I will put it up as a tutorial on my site (full credit will be given to the maker of this method.  I do not have AL yet, nor Seasons, so I cannot test it out.)  Please help me to help all of you.

BK

[jolrei]

The empty hoods from Giggy are empty - no sims.

[BirmanKat]

The empty hoods from Giggy are empty - no sims.

Oh Kay, Now for the big part.  I have been reading some messages that say there are a few problems with the hoods.  Has that been resolved.  (IE  trying to buldoze an apartment and being told that they had to move some "Unnamed" family out, even though there were no families there.)  Has that issue been resolved?   Or is that issue with a different hood?  Also, I am assuming that E002_Neighborhood.pkg is the "Stealth Hood" for AL, Am I correct in that assumption?

Birman Kat

[loripanori]

The issue is with Belladonna Cove, the E001 neighborhood.  I think you're right about E002 being the AL stealth neighborhood (i.e the "magic" neighborhood that is added to all neighborhoods), but I'm not totally sure about that.  The E001 glitch with the apartments can be avoided altogether (I'm pretty sure), so that the apartments can be used rather than deleted...  You just need to move the sims out of the apartments and into the sim bin, before deleting all the characters and making the empty template.  I tested this with my own neighborhood and it worked, but I'm not sure how to edit the E001 neighborhood file properly to make a truly empty template. Otherwise I would share it with you.  If someone who knows how to make empty templates could try this, to remake the empty E001, I'm pretty sure it would work. 

The workaround is to delete the borked apartments (the ones that had playable families living in them before the cleanup).  According to Giggy (she added this to her post a few pages back):

Enter the affected apartments, changelotzoning residential, save then exit, bulldoze apartment then replace.

[Nepheris]

I get a corrupt archive on the clean and fixed basegame 'hoods download. (CleanAndFixed_PSV_All3.rar)
Anyone got a different link?

[BirmanKat]

Thanks a lot.  I will be doing an update to the site soon and including the warning.  I will most likely wait for the transition to The Kat's Meow, instead of updating the old K & B Designs site.  Once I do, I will update the link here, and in my sig.  

@ Nepheris:
  Try the base game hoods on K & B designs (Link in my sig).  I think that they are good.  If not PM me and I will see what I can do.


Birman Kat

[Nepheris]

Thank you Birman, those work just fine

[BirmanKat]

glad I could help...   

Birman Kat

[bellynn]

Apologies for the necromancy, but I'm updating with a new share link for the templates.

First let me say thanks to all who did the great work cleaning and empting these neighborhoods to make our games more fun to play. Many BAAAAAAs to you!

I would like to offer another download location for the neighborhood files - I am hosting all the files that I have collected throughout this thread on my MediaFire acct.
I didn't clean or empty any of these neighborhoods -- the files are all collected from the past 26 pages of posts in this thread. I am simply resharing them in one place, hopefully to make it easier for people to find what they need.

There are three different folders of neighborhoods:

Neighborhoods Cleaned
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=08eec5979199d6f6ab1eab3e9fa335ca1ed246f4d52059da

Neighborhoods Empty
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=08eec5979199d6f6ab1eab3e9fa335cad788992b4e85b98b

Neighborhoods Emptier by Argon
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=08eec5979199d6f6ab1eab3e9fa335caf6ce6b26a1bf897e

If there is no neighborhood file available in the folder that you are looking at, it means none is available or that I don't have a copy of it. Feel free to point out good links to any files I don't have copies of, and I will share them as well.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

[Madame Mim]

Under the programs & EAGames folders each EP has it's own folder. Even if you have DD you should have a The Sims 2 folder. Into that folder goes clean templates for N001, N002 & N003 (always rememberign to store a backup of the original in a safe place).

Does this help?

[Mootilda]

Under your program files / sims 2 deluxe folder (not quite sure what the default name is, since I changed it), you'll find a folder named EP2.  That's your nightlife folder.

[pbox]

Forgive me if 'm missing something very obvious, but.

I've just installed created neighbourhoods a few times with no templates at all, and to my surprise that seems to Just Work. No townies, no stealth neighbourhoods, no clutter. Game behaves normally, also generates random townies/NPCs as desired. What I did was to just remove N001, N002, N003, and G002 entirely. (I'm playing NL/OfB/SSn at the moment, but haven't made any downtowns or business districts).

What exactly are the clean templates doing that no templates aren't? Does anyone know?

Among the abovementioned neighbourhoods is one that I'm planning to redistribute (as a complete hood with lots), so I would love to know in advance if this would mess things up in some way.


(edited to clarify -- excuse the bad wording)

[Emma]

Did you create the neighbourhoods yourself, or install neighbourhoods pre-made by others? If it is the latter then there is a very good chance they have made the neighbourhoods using clean templates themselves.

I haven't a clue if removing the neighbourhood folders from the program files is a good idea or not. Personally clean templates, IMO, are safer.

[Mootilda]

plasticbox created the neighborhoods.

As far as I can tell, this is what the AnyGameStarter is doing when you specify that you want an empty game (i.e. renaming all of the neighborhoods in the Program Files directory).  I'd also like to know whether it's safe.

It looks like the empty templates just remove the sims from the neighborhoods and subneighborhoods which are shipped with the game, but otherwise leave the hoods and lots intact, whereas the AGS removes those hoods completely from the game.

[Emma]

Best bet is to ask Numenor then. He'd know. I haven't used AGS in ages as it kept duplicating my lot catalog so I had about 10 different versions of each lot in there.

[pbox]

OK, I PM'd Numenor on mts2. I just thought I should ask here first, since the people who made these templates might have had a reason for it that I know nothing about.

I should probably add that Mootilda looking into the way the AGS works is what gave me the idea to remove the templates -- I'm on OS X, so I can't check it out myself. I think Numenor mentioned before that his way of doing things was More Empty Than You, but unfortunately I can't find that post anymore. 


ETA, this is what Numenor says:

Yes, the AGS can create the "emptiest" neighborhood possible but of course, not on a Mac. Mootilda is partly right: the script for an Empty game temporarily renames the various neighborhood templates, but also renames many other game resources, so that the game can't find them when the neighborhood is created and loaded: all the pre-made lots and families, the hidden lots, the vacation/college/downtown sub-neighborhoods, the default NPC's and several other things.
Then, everything is renamed back when the AGS game ends, so that no harm is made to the full game.

Renaming everything by hand, and then renaming back, is too annoying, in my opinion. Probably, in your case, the best solution is to use MATY's templates (which BTW *are* really empty, but can be filled with useless things when you load it in your game, unlike the AGS empty games).

I don't *really* feel any smarter now, since I was under the impression that everything he mentions (pre-made lots and families, hidden lots, sub-neighborhoods, NPC's) is stored inside the N001/etc folders .. so removing them should take care of those issues as well. But I don't recall very well anymore how the Windows game is organised.

[Emma]

I used to use AGS with empty templates installed too, to make my neighbourhoods. Just doubly safe IMO.

[Mootilda]

ETA, this is what Numenor says:

Yes, the AGS can create the "emptiest" neighborhood possible but of course, not on a Mac. Mootilda is partly right: the script for an Empty game temporarily renames the various neighborhood templates, but also renames many other game resources, so that the game can't find them when the neighborhood is created and loaded: all the pre-made lots and families, the hidden lots, the vacation/college/downtown sub-neighborhoods, the default NPC's and several other things.
Then, everything is renamed back when the AGS game ends, so that no harm is made to the full game.

I don't *really* feel any smarter now, since I was under the impression that everything he mentions (pre-made lots and families, hidden lots, sub-neighborhoods, NPC's) is stored inside the N001/etc folders .. so removing them should take care of those issues as well. But I don't recall very well anymore how the Windows game is organised.

You are correct.  The neighborhood directories contain all of the pre-made lots and families, hidden lots, sub-neighborhoods, etc.  I believe that the AGS also renames other things, but I'd have to check.  I'm sure that you could recreate (on the MAC) the batch file that the AGS uses to rename everything, run the game, and then rename everything back, if you were interested.

Having never used the empty templates, am I correct that they still include the shipped neighborhoods and lots, but without the sims?

[Emma]

Having never used the empty templates, am I correct that they still include the shipped neighborhoods and lots, but without the sims?

Exactly.

[pbox]

The neighborhood directories contain all of the pre-made lots and families, hidden lots, sub-neighborhoods, etc.  I believe that the AGS also renames other things, but I'd have to check.  I'm sure that you could recreate (on the MAC) the batch file that the AGS uses to rename everything, run the game, and then rename everything back, if you were interested.

If you could look up what else it is changing/renaming, that would be great. Unfortunately the current AGS is installer-only, there is no script I could look at (and I'd like to avoid trying to install it on a Windows box that has no game on it). Since I *never* want any of the Maxis stuff, I wouldn't even need to set up a process or anything, just zip everything I don't want/need and dump it somewhere.

(In case there's a batch file the AGS is using that's even remotely human-readable, you could just give me that (here, or PM me) -- I believe the names of the game files are similar enough on osx/windows for me to make sense of it.)

[Mootilda]

The AGS creates a different batch file for each set of EPs and SPs that you want to run, since it needs to disable all of the stuff that you're not going to be using.  I suppose that a copy of the batch files and registry files for an empty base game would be your best bet.  Then, you just need to figure out which files belong to which pack.  No problem... I'll get that for you.

[Update: attached]

Start with Start_AnyGame1.bat.  The parameters are just the parameters that you want to use to start the game (-w for windowed, -r for resolution, etc).  The BAT files are just text commands, the REG files are changes to the registry (which you probably don't need).  HidCon.exe just hides the console window, and is therefore completely unnecessary.  Sleep.exe just pauses for a while, to allow things to finish processing.  Let me know if you need help interpreting what it's doing.

CD means change to a directory
REN means to rename a file or directory.
ECHO is just logging what it's doing, in case something going wrong.

It's pretty straightforward.